Congregational leaders meet in Concordia

Leaders from more than a dozen congregations of religious women are meeting in Concordia through Wednesday. This is the Region XIII meeting of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and is being hosted by the Sisters of St, Joseph of Concordia.

One of the biggest chunks of time during the discussion sessions is devoted to considering “Transformative Elements for Religious Life in the Future.” The sisters are reviewing and reflecting on “transformative elements” that were first developed 20 years ago, to see the role those elements play in religious life today and how they can be further developed.

Also on the program was a presentation of the documentary “Interrupted Lives: Catholic Sisters in Eastern Europe” and a discussion of the research by Sisters Margaret Nacke and Mary Savoie, both Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, that led to that film’s creation.

On Tuesday evening, the sisters toured the National Orphan Train Museum in Concordia. Curator Muriel Anderson was on hand to explain the history of the “Orphan Train Movement” in the United States, as well as how the museum in Concordia came into being. The museum itself is a renovated 1917 Union Pacific depot located just north of downtown Concordia.